17 more bodies recovered from smuggler’s boat that capsized off Italy

Italian soldiers carry body bags at the Lampedusa island, Italy, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013. An Italian government minister born in Africa stood silently Sunday as soldiers carried body bags of would-be asylum seekers from her native continent who perished when their packed fishing boat sank within sight of the tiny island of Lampedusa. Divers recovered 83 more bodies after seas calmed enough to resume search operations following a two-day suspension, increasing the death toll to at least 194 ó 55 of those women and five children. More than 150 other people are believed to be missing, many likely trapped in the wreckage about 50 meters (165 feet) below the surface. (AP Photo/Francesco Malavolta)

A Carabinieri paramilitary police officer looks at migrants waiting to board a ferry boat from the port of Lampedusa, for Sicily, southern Italy, where they will be sent to other temporary camps based on their legal status, Monday, Oct. 7, 2013. On Thursday a fishing boat packed with 500 African migrants capsized off the shores of the island of Lampedusa, causing at least 190 dead and more than 100 missing, in what could become the largest death toll in a migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean on record. Laura Boldrini, the speaker of Italy's lower house who recently led a parliamentary delegation to Lampedusa, said the migrants who are reaching Europe's shores now are by and large asylum seekers, not economic migrants, as has been the case in the past. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

LAMPEDUSA, Italy -- Italian divers recovered 17 more bodies Monday from a smugglers’ boat that capsized and sank to bottom of the Mediterranean Sea with hundreds of migrants on board.

That brought the confirmed death toll from Thursday’s tragedy to 211 before poor weather off the southern island of Lampedusa again halted the recovery operation.

Only 155 people of the estimated 500 on board survived the sinking. Scores of bodies are believed to be still trapped in the hull of the 18-meter (59-foot) boat, which is resting 47 meters (154 feet) below the surface.

Monday was the first day that divers entered the hull. Coast Guard Capt. Filippo Marini estimated it would take two more days to complete the search and recovery mission.

“Bodies have been recovered from outside the ship and from the ship’s cabin. Now we have to get inside the hold,” Marini said.

The Coast Guard hoped to resume the search later Monday if the weather clears.

Diver Riccardo Nobile, who did multiple dives on Sunday when 83 bodies were recovered, said the work inside the boat is much more complicated. Divers can only stay submerged for seven to 10 minutes, depending on the conditions.

“I found myself for more than an hour among these corpses. It was difficult to look straight at their faces, to see their wounds, see their tormented expressions, their outstretched arms,” said Nobile, who also spent stretches on a boat while other diving teams worked. “It was extremely difficult. But this is our job.”

The ship had arrived within sight of Lampedusa, a tiny island that is Italy’s southernmost point, after two days of sailing from Libya. The capsizing tossed hundreds of people into the sea, many of whom could not swim.

Tens of thousands of migrants from African and the Middle East try to cross the Mediterranean Sea each year, seeking a better life in Europe. Hundreds die in the process.